


Crypt of Curiosity

by orphan_account



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Gen, I have lots of thoughts and my notebook was full, Somewhat of an analysis, not a fic but it’s interesting anyway?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:07:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22202320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: I’ve watched the Crypt of Tears trailers too many times, and have frankly analysed the heavens out of it- I filled almost a whole notebook with questions, discoveries, theories, and after being bugged, thought it time to share my ramblings with you all.PLEASE NOTE: my research is nowhere near as accurate or as detailed as many others; and I hope that doesn’t offend anyone. I’ll be adding and editing points as we go.
Relationships: Phryne Fisher & Jack Robinson, Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson
Comments: 28
Kudos: 27





	1. Introduction

Okay, I’ll admit: I’ve watched both of the Crypt of Tears trailers more times than I can count on my fingers- frankly, I don’t have enough. I love both of the trailers almost as much as I love MFMM itself, and cannot express quite how much I have cried over all of the little pieces that I’ve been able to pull from them, or tell you all how I sobbed when Jack and Phryne entered together in the first trailer. It was at about the end of December when I sat down and was like, “Okay tei, time to write down all your thoughts and feelings about this movie- without crying”. Spoiler alert: I cried, and then spent ages dissecting everything I could. Le sigh. In this four-part ‘story’, I bring you all my thoughts and fears for Crypt of Tears. Please: sit back, relax, and cry with me.  
I would also like to make a small disclaimer: everything I say is purely guesswork and historical research based. Unlike FoxSpirit and other more wellknown fic writers, I do not have solid timelines or photographic evidence to back up any of the point I make. My main fear when posting theses notes and questions I have had was a backlash from others saying how improbable everything is, which admittedly, I can understand. But then again- everyone has to have a little theory sometimes! 

This work will be in four parts (five including the introduction), and I hope to have it completed by the time the Crypt of Tears official release date rolls around, or perhaps even by my birthday (February 9th!). Three of the long parts simply need to be typed up from my notebook, one of the other parts still needs to be thought out and written, but as it goes, I hope to bring you:  
1\. Questions and theories as prompted by the two Crypt of Tears trailers  
2\. The probable Jack approach: a timeline of how he could have gotten to England, how long it would have taken him, and how his leave would have worked. (Also featuring points such as how much his divorce from Rosie cost, and how he rose through the ranks of the constabulary)  
3\. Phryne's journey: the where, what and how long of flying to England with her father. (A bit of math, and how cities were throughout the 20’s.)  
4\. The aftermath: things I would have liked to see happen in the film, but knowing my luck, probably won’t. 

I really do hope this is an enjoyable work for people to read- an insight into my mind, let’s say. I hope you all like reading my ramblings quite as much as I enjoyed writing them! 

Kisses!


	2. Questions and Theories

Dear reader.   
I’m going to warn you now- I have a lot of thoughts, most of which result in me crying. As I had mentioned already, the two trailers made me cry both times that I watched them in full, and the more I have watched them, the more I cried. On the rainy afternoon that I sat down to take notes on the second trailer, I found myself with five notebook pages of questions, most of which I have since tried to answer and explain my reasoning behind.  
Le sigh. Shall we begin? 

CRYPT OF TEARS QUESTIONS:   
\- Did Jack go after her? One can assume so, but how much time has passed since season three? Did she have to wait long- and oh, another note: what’s her parents’ relationship like now? [NOTE AS OF JAN 10: Well, I didn’t want to go back and edit this one, but I did. He went after her because he thought she was dead: he went after her memory. One can now also assume that quite a lot of time has passed, because Phryne has had the time to get enveloped in someone else’s case, get separated AND be presumed dead. Fabulous.]

\- What’s up with the rain scene? I would love to know- she’s wearing the same outfit in which she is seen snooping around in the ‘blue’ scenes, and then also later when she is chasing after the man in the hat. Also, why is Jack in shirtsleeves? (And what’s she holding? Is it a pocket watch?). Jack in shirtsleeves has really thrown me off kilter- have we EVER seen him in just shirtsleeves and a waistcoat since Queenscliff?

\- Speaking of Jack, what’s up with him? He seems salty for almost the entire length of the second trailer. [UPDATE AS OF JAN 9: He thought she was DEAD? That explains completely why he was so salty the entire time, he’s had to go through it all again bless him.]

\- Who’s party do Jack and Phryne happen to be at? There’s way more that I could ask about this, but hey, I guess I won’t. ALSO- can we yell about how he has his whole little “is this your idea of sweet nothings” line? Is he trying to be an ass? Surely she’s finally realising that she loves him and this shouldn’t be what she gets in return. [UPDATE AS OF JAN 9: He thought she was dead, and they’re waltzing, and he thinks it’s just something she’s doing to- let me just cry quickly.]

\- Is the waltz a stakeout? The two of them look nervous and uncomfortable and she seems to be glancing over his shoulder as if she’s on the lookout for something. I’d also quite like to know (chronologically) when this ‘ball’ takes place: has he only just arrived in England, or is it part of their case?

\- Putting the two trailers together: the ‘blue’ scenes that have a blue tinge. She picks a lock, looks through a keyhole, and tells Jack to shush with her trademarked finger to his lips. They’re also still wearing their clothes from the ball (I think), so it either happens before or after the awkward waltz. If I knew, I would tell you why Jack seems so miffed but then again, I don’t. [UPDATE AS OF JAN 9: You already know what this note is going to say. He’s miffed because he had to go through thinking she was dead. Again. For at least a month. Let me cry for another moment, and then we’ll be back.]

\- Who’s the guy that Miss Fisher chases after in the rain? Is he someone we have met before or is he someone new? My mind is telling me Eugine Fisher or Murdoch Foyle as we never actually know for certain if either of them hang, as it is never confirmed, but my heart tells me otherwise. I’m not a fan of the conflict going on in my head and heart right now.

\- Who’s house is in the shot at the start? Is it Phryne’s residence in England, or is it simply a social occasion that she happens to be at? [NOTE AS OF JAN 10: they wouldn’t open with a shot of her bloody ‘memorial’ would they? Please say no.]

\- Does Jack arrive during the party? She seems to step outside to greet someone, and then it cuts to him after her line of “Jack! What are you doing here?” Alternately, after that same scene was seen in the first trailer and we only see a mans back there was speculation over if it was Jack or not. [UPDATE AS OF JAN 9: Is anyone else thinking there’s a distinct possibility that Phryne was found alive before Jack arrived in England and no one was able to contact him to tell him that she was safe? Her surprise to see him could also be due to a general invite issued to the people she knew in Australia and not even knowing he was on his way, or why he was on his way to begin with. Ahhhhh. Also, if it was a general invite, where on earth are Dot and Hugh?]

\- WHAT IS IN THE BOX THAT JACK IS CARRYING???

\- Who says “Miss Fisher, quickly!”. I feel as if I recognise the voice, but then again, I most certainly don’t. On a related note, has Phryne solved crimes since being in England? If someone is asking after her then surely she must have some form of a reputation.

\- Gold cloak with flowy sleeves? What’s up with that? Where are Phryne’s practical, well-cut trousers?

\- If the home is shown again, is it the same one as during the day, or is it actually the Fisher estate? 

\- The church genuinely seems a bit sketchy. Phryne looks around as if she is nervous, and I would love an explanation, dearly. [NOTE AS OF JAN 10: If she is yelling at someone about her ‘death’ then I would love to see it. If she’s emotional and crying and doesn’t do so well, Everycloud are welcome to keep it.]

\- The police officer (chief?) is giving me serious season one Jack cross Sanderson vibes. I can’t explain it in words, but he just does. What’s up with him, and why does he seize their passports after he lectures them about turning up at his crime scene and clearly thinks of them as suspects? Why hasn’t he just asked them to go home, that would have made the most sense. [NOTE AS OF DECEMBER 17: The IMBD page says that this guy is the assistant commissioner- so why is he the one dealing with it? Also, why hasn’t Jack pulled rank? Surely it would be best to point out how much he has done?] [NOTE AS OF JAN 10: Poor Jack. Now he’s stuck solving a case while he’s mad at Phryne. It’s blood of juana the mad all over again.]

\- Who is on the rooftop with Phryne at 0:43? You can clearly see a shadow (no face, though), and she looks absolutely petrified, which we haven’t truly seen proper fear in her eyes since the whole Murdoch Foyle ordeal.

\- That guy in the doorway- it’s not Jack, I can tell that much quite clearly (wrong shoulder shape if I’m honest), but who is it? The camera then cuts to some kind of dinner where Aunt P is in attendance, and that leaves me a little lost. Was she already in England, or was she too invited for Phryne’s ‘memorial’? If so, did she travel with Jack? Did she comfort him? I mean, don’t get me wrong, Jack and Prudence have a very weird relationship, but if I get a bonding scene between my two sombre characters, I am SO DOWN FOR THAT.

\- The fencing scene: who is THAT guy? He’s not doorway or rain guy, I know that much, but I’d adore to know who he is. Is he a cousin? A suspect? A family friend, an old friend? Why are they fencing? Why are they fencing on STAIRS? He gives me Gerald McNaster vibes but I know 100% that there is no way in hell that it is him.

\- Phryne’s plane. Is it hers, or is it someone else’s? Actually, scrap that, it’s probably hers- are we picking right up at the end of season three, or.... [NOTE AS OF DECEMBER 17: Phryne’s plane that she leaves with her father in is silver, her own plane that she bought during Green Mill is a canary yellow. A plane of each of those colours are seen in that opening desert scene. I have far too many questions.]

\- “I’m not sure if one lifetime will be enough for you to save the whole world.” LOOK JACK WE DON’T NEED THAT SASS. PLEASE. I’m also confused as to what he is referring to: has she done something we don’t yet know about? Does he think she is overexerting herself?

\- Why why why why why why are they stood QUITE SO CLOSE after almost the entire trailer has consisted of Jack being ridiculously salty? It’s nice to know he still has his sense of humour in the bridge scene, but my god, does he seem bitter. Also, does she reach out to put her hand on his lapel? I :) would :) like :) to :) see :) it :)

\- Who says the “wherever you go-” voiceover line because I cannot for the life of me decide if the voice sounds menacing or not! It sounds a little bit like our darling Mr. B, but it was confirmed that he wasn’t in the movie, wasn’t it? I’m a tad bit lost.

\- Did I mention how Phryne has her gun out three times in the second trailer alone- because that worries me. She only bought out the gun during the direst moments of the seasons, so why does she now happen to need it three times during a one minute and thirty-eight second trailer?

\- IS THAT JACK PULLING HER AWAY FROM THE CRUMBLING WALL? YES NO MAYBE?

\- Who hits Jack over the head? I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW. One second he’s fiddling with things and bent over a desk and next second someone is behind him raising something over his head (1:27ish). And the flame that drops- is Jack in danger? [NOTE AS OF JAN 10: So, is this payback from someone? Should they not be sticking their nose wherever they are? Hm?]

\- Why is Phryne running out into the rain so unprepared? Fourth time we see the gun in under three minutes, and WHO IS THAT MAN. [NOTE AS OF JAN 10: My mind is literally in hyperdrive because of these ‘blue’ scenes, and I really feel like there’s a common link somewhere but I just haven’t figured out what yet. Does Jack get kidnapped? Held hostage? Help help help I can’t do this.]

\- Even through it rains a lot in England, the use of rain throughout MFMM as a whole is very small. Something must really be going down, as rain is usually only used as pathetic fallacy throughout all the episodes (weather reflecting the mood of a focal character)

\- Ok, back to the first trailer: is there a second plane following the first? Yes. I can only assume it is her Moth, but then again: good bad indifferent?

\- Jack and Phryne in that alley- gives me Collingwood vibes even though we barely see Collingwood even in the series. I know full well that it’s not Collingwood, but is this case time? Also, is she wearing that new lilac-rose cloche/coat combo that we see in the bridge scene? I’d like to know.

\- Didn’t notice this until now, but one of the ‘blue’ scenes has a totally different angle, and they all must be interlinked somehow. Is it a laboratory? What did I miss? I’m really tied up with these scenes because I just can’t quite figure out how they fit together.

\- “Well I certainly hope my reparti was worth the journey.” I’m standing by my belief that it is Jack in this scene even if some people feel like they can see glasses- it may just be a shadow on the door, and the way that the filming cuts, it would make sense for it to be Jack? [EDIT AS OF DEC 10: Okay so, was her reparti referring to her original leaving of Australia, or is she asking about if following her to come to the ‘memorial’ was worth the journey? I have so many questions about this quote but I can’t put it into words?????]

\- The couple at 0:41: they seem to be watching Jack and Phryne waltz, but my main question is are they significant? Also, side note on couples but I’m so nervous to meet lord and lady Lofthouse- is he an old friend? Is he old? Young? Then again, I’m awfully excited to meet Lady Lofthouse- the last time we met one of Phryne’s upper-class female friends she turned out to be the leader of a cocaine ring, so really, this could go absolutely anywhere.

\- The rain scene. So many questions and not enough answers. I shall now scream into the void and wonder if Jack and Phryne are ever actually going to be happy or if there is MORE pathetic fallacy and I should continue to worry.

\- Can we also take a moment to note that the entire theme of the movie seems to be olive green, but not once do we see any green dresses, clothes, backdrops, etc? Sure, it’s a pretty colour but I feel as if it wouldn’t have simply been chosen for no reason at all.

FULL UPDATE AS OF JAN 10:  
Okay, that new spoiler that Everycloud was allowed to release has me all kinds of messed up. When I say that I was crying for a solid half an hour I’m not even joking. I cried for half an hour. Jack never got the chance to go after her simply because he wanted to, but he was forced to go after her because he had to have the chance to say goodbye to her one last time because he had to let her go. That hit me really hard. A while back, the official Instagram released a behind the scenes image of Jack with his Abbotsford scarf tied around his neck, which I originally assumed was down to Phryne giving it back to him once he reached England because she had taken it with her as a reminder of home. Now that I’ve gone back and looked at that photo again, and the three others posted with it, I’m almost certain it’s a shot on a boat, which leads me to assume that it is from when Jack is making his way over to England and thinks she is dead. This hit me really hard in the feels, because now I feel like he must have it with him as almost a comfort blanket- something to remind him of happier times.  
ALSO: If the whole movie ends up like blood at the wheel and ‘juana the mad, I may just have to cry. Yes, I’m aware we have the possibility of two sequels to make it up, but please can they just be happy for once? I swear on my life IF PRUDENCE INTERRUPTS A KISS DURING THIS MOVIE I WILL LOSE IT.

That’s all for now folks! Check back in at some point soon to listen to my five hours worth of work that I did to try and figure out how long Jack would have taken to go after her if Everycloud hadn’t thrown a spanner in the works and said that he goes to England for her memorial. I would rework the timings to make it fit, but frankly, I’m:  
A) Thinking of happier times AND  
B) Not reworking six pages of notebook paper just to fit something that’s going to take me another three hours to fix.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, that was a lot. Now talk to me!! Points of agreement? Disagreement? Thoughts? Feelings? Your own theories?   
> Love, T x


	3. Jack, boats, and some interesting numbers

Welcome back, dear reader!   
Today’s mess of a chapter is some 3,000 words on my possible favourite fictional man on this planet: Jack Robinson. I kind of danced around during this chapter- it was supposed to be a straight talk about how he got to England, but I ended up drowning in charts from 1929 about salaries, and took a LOT of averages. Le sigh- shall we begin?

LONDON:

\- Obviously, the majority of the movie is set in London, but truly, how much?  
\- London as a location begs the question of how long after season three is Crypt of tears set? A short enough time for Phryne to still be in London, but a long enough time for Jack to have decided to come after her and arrived. Eight weeks or so? I’ll need to look into how long a steamer trip from Melbourne to London would cost, and go from there.

BOAT STUFF (AND A LOT ON JACK):

\- Okay, so. The opening of the Suez Canal gave boats an alternative passage from Australia to the continent (Europe), which reduced the length of time it would take to get to and from the areas. According to Museums Victoria the passage would now only take 35 to 40 days to complete, rather than the four months or so that it had taken pre-Suez Canal.  
SO: let’s think about the amount of time that Jack would be allowed to take off from work. He’s a senior figure of the Victorian Constabulary, so it’s highly likely that his number of allowed vacation days would be much higher than that of Collins, for example- Jack has clearly been there long enough to have risen up through the ranks. He was in the police strike of ’23, so, obviously, he’s been on a while. (NOTE: after checking the concept document that ABC Australia released way back when the first season aired in 2012, it seems clear to me that Jack has been on the force since before 1914, as he was promoted to a senior constable as soon as it was seen that he enlisted (6). IT TAKES A MINIMUM OF FIVE YEARS TO RISE FROM CONSTABLE TO SENIOR CONSTABLE. Jack’s been working since about 1913 ish, which, if any of this is right, would make him about four years older than Phryne. She joined her brigade directly after finishing school which ended at age 14: and she is said to have been born in 1900. This way it works out that Jack was 17 when he joined the force, 18 when he enlisted, and still 18/ maybe just turning 19 when he received his promotion. In other cases, senior constable can be directly applied after ten years of work on the force, and we can assume that Jack has been working harder than that anyway). The fact we only ever see Jack at work suggests he takes very little time off the job, and that his dedication to work carries through the first three seasons. If we look at a rough timeline of his work on the Victorian Police Force, one can assume it would look at least a little like this:  
1913/1914: Depends upon when he enlisted for the war originally. Australia enters WWI in about 1914. In normal cases, his rank rise would have taken five or so years, so let’s say he joined the constabulary at 17 years old to begin with, which would make him (overall) four years older than Phryne.  
1918: WWI draws to a close, and Jack returns from the front post-war. Returns back to his job and is immediately a senior constable due to his promotion that was given as soon as he originally enlisted.  
1923: Strike of ’23. I like to think that although Jack did protest, he would have obviously been married to Rosie for a while, and George Sanderson would have been the reason he was able to keep his job through the ups and downs.  
1926: Commissioners come into play. I like to think that Jack would have started his job as a Detective Inspector in about 1924? If not, he would certainly have been appointed once the upper brass came into play.  
1928-1929: Miss Fisher comes into play. Jack has clearly been working the job for a while (let’s just take a moment for the fact he has business cards). Cases are solved over the space of two years, and eventually Phryne leaves for England with her good-for-nothing father.  
(In my notebook, I have [Note on journey so I don’t forget: ship would have stopped over at Port Said] written in in pencil. I’m not quite sure of the relevance so I’m going to include it here anyway.

SO: With Jack’s rank, how much would he have gotten paid, and in relation to that, how much would a steamer ticket from Melbourne to London/Southampton be in late 1929? According to a 39-page document I found that firemen and policemen’s salaries in 1924-1934, he wasn’t all that bad off. We should also consider how his family could afford a Shakespeare based education, how Jack is awfully well read, can speak German and a little French, and comes from what seems to be a middle-class family in Richmond. Also, note how he could afford a divorce from Rosie, now that the option was available. [NOTE: according to sources, the average price of a divorce in 1928 Australia was about $75 back then, which equates to about $2967.40 in the modern day]. Theoretically, this means that Jack can’t have been too badly off, as although Rosie may have come from a wealthy family, Jack would still have been required to pay the divorce costs, because as we’re in the past, that’s simply how the ball would have rolled.

COSTS:

\- Going off of the Babbel Trust’s page on police salaries from 1914 and onwards, if you can read you can accurately assume that Jack earned around $3,500 per year. Although this may not be utterly accurate as it is for the typical American Inspector’s salary, it seems like it would be about right. There is the possibility that he could have made $2,400 or so per year with the chance of $260 worth of bonuses depending upon his quality of work over the year. Let’s be honest- Jack likely did earn the bonus that he deserved, maybe even more, as the salary varies during the years that pass. In most cases, the salary ranged from $2,000 to $3,600 and on a calculated average (15660/5) ends up being $3132- a pretty decent salary for someone in the early 1900’s.

\- SO WHAT ABOUT THE BOAT COSTS?  
As spoken of earlier, the average boat trip from Melbourne to Southampton (one of England’s busiest ports, and coincidentally, where I moved from), was about 35-40 days due to the opening of the Suez Canal in the much earlier year of 1869. The average cost of a steamer ticket (let’s say second class, for we know that Jack is likely pretty frugal with his money) would be about $350 ACCORDING TO THE ONLY SOURCE THAT I WAS ABLE TO FIND ANYWHERE AT ALL. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF OTHER FIGURES EXIST. This ticket would have equated to a rather hefty portion of the Inspector’s salary- almost the entire of the supposed bonus that I mentioned in the last paragraph, yet- if he were to stay in England for long enough, I suppose that it would be worth it.

LENGTH OF TRIP AND TIMELINE:

\- After having looked up some of the ships available for travel at the time, the very best I could find at the time of researching was the RMS Ormonde. [NOTE AS OF JAN 13: I realised about a month ago that we know that Phryne swans into Melbourne on the Orient. It really would have made my life so much easier to research that one, but here we are anyway. I’m not changing it all now]. Voyages up through the Suez Canal were most common; according to sources from at the time, this was a relatively quick way to go about the voyage, creating about a six-week round-trip. Once finished with her voyages during WWI, the Ormonde was stripped and turned into a streamliner for trips through the Middle East, and up past England- hence why I chose this one. The RMS Ormonde was a working ship for a jolly long time, and was most certainly working while Jack was trying to ‘go after’ Miss Fisher, and ended up being a (hopefully) logical boat for him to have boarded.

\- With regards to time, if Phryne left on September 5th, 1929 (or the 6th, I don’t recall, and I’m afraid I don’t have the timeline to hand right now), knowing Jack, he would have made a pretty snappy decision about going after her (especially taking that kiss into consideration), and if he knew he could go after Phryne, probably would have. [NOTE AS OF JAN 13: Can I cry now? All of this was written for fitting Crypt of Tears in hopes that he was going with her out of love, NOT BECAUSE HE THOUGHT SHE WAS DEAD MY ENTIRE TIMELINE IS A MESS NOW]. As a timeline, here’s roughly what could have happened:  
\- Jack takes a day to think matters over (Sep. 7)  
\- Jack asks the new commissioner for leave, applies for leave, however you want to refer to it (Sep. 8)  
\- As a rough estimate, let’s say that it took the commissioner a week to approve the request for leave- maybe even quicker, knowing how diligent of an officer our inspector is. (Sep. 15 ish)  
\- A day or so to pack his bags and close up current affairs that the station is dealing with (Sep. 16)  
\- Time to both book the steamer ticket, and leave on the ship: let’s give him four weeks (Oct. 14 ish)  
At this point, it would probably be a good idea to mention that the average extended leave of a worker (or so it seems) in the 1920’s was about three months. From what I have read elsewhere, due to the superior position that Jack holds, it is possible that his whole leave could have been extended to around six months overall. Back to the timeline:

\- Let’s say that Jack leaves Melbourne on about October 15th. As someone who does not study boats, nor do I study their docking dates or patterns, I do not know if this is a genuine voyage date for the RMS Ormonde or not. When trying to look it up, all I came across was a badly photocopied chart from about 1932, hence, I gave up. If the voyage takes about six weeks (35-40 days, as I keep saying), then Jack would have arrived in England on about November 25th, 1929. On the fact that I cannot tell at all what month the movie is set in, my heart and head kind of clash again at this point. My heart bends toward the later end of the year, perhaps the forthcoming turn of the decade, due to the lavish party, and the focus of the chiming clock in the first trailer. If Jack is only just arriving before the year turns (and remember, this is all wild speculation on my part), then perhaps his overall preparation for leaving Australia took a little longer than I had originally anticipated. There is, of course, the distinct possibility that it took a while longer than I had thought for the commissioner to approve Jack’s request for an extended leave, EVEN WHEN JACK IS SUCH A COMPETANT OFFICER OF THE LAW. (See the timeline discussing both the time it takes to leave AND his rise through the force). If the commissioner were to take the request file and leave it on his desk for a little while, another week or so, perhaps question how society would feel about an officer of the law chasing after a flighty socialite and staying with her for six months, out of his sphere of influence. So, you know. If his desk works the same way that many do- messy, chaotic, and never all that well put together- then Jack wouldn’t have been leaving for another good couple of weeks, which would put his arrival in England closer to the middle of December of 1929. If we push him back by another month, he arrives on Christmas, so, perhaps not? Whatever way it all works out- Jack would be England by late December, AND he would have been able to afford it on his wages. Voila.

[NOTE: with regards to the trip Jack would have taken, and my little note on Port Said earlier, the voyage would likely have gone a little like this:  
Melbourne – Adelaide – Freemantle – Colombo – Suez Canal – Port Said – Naples – Toulon – Gibraltar – London — Portsmouth]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So um... how are we feeling? Too many numbers?


	4. Phryne and Planes

PHRYNE’S TRIP:

Unfortunately, dear reader, we do have to talk numbers in this chapter- a lot of them, in fact. We also have to discuss our absolute darling that is Henry George Fisher, Baron of Richmond, so, you know. If that’s not your jam, do let me know. The next chapter is infinitely more interesting, I promise! It’ll be history, and geography, two things that (hopefully) we all adore. Shall we go on?

\- First and foremost: the books confirm that Phryne’s own plane is a Tiger Moth: a small, two-seater, well-known for being relatively hardy, and of course, good for flying. To quote the Wikipedia article on the plane, as it is quite possibly the most comprehensive article on an aircraft that I have EVER seen: “The Tiger Moth exhibits the fundamental requirements of a training aircraft, in being "easy to fly, but difficult to fly well"; the aircraft's benign handling when within its limits make it easy for the novice to learn the basic skills of flight.” In the vernacular, dear reader: the plane is jolly easy to fly, a perfect plane to learn to fly in, and does everything that one would ask of a small, hardy plane during the early 20th century.  
Although Phryne’s own plane that we see at the end of ‘Green Mill’ is the yellow one that we know and love, at the end of ‘Death Do Us Part’ is grey, and looks to be the same plane that we see during “Murder and the Maiden’. If you were to tie the two scenes together, then it seems the most likely that Phryne would have had to ask Lyle Compton for a favour due to the quick fix that she needed to get her father out of the Antipodes, back to England and to save his marriage. I shan’t go into thoughts of this too much, as knowing our luck, dear readers, it is more than likely that Compton would have asked her for a favour in return.

JOURNEY (BASED OFF OF MISSFISHERCHALLENGES):

\- In accordance to what little information I have been able to find, the idea of a definite flight path for Phryne is very, very small. After some researching of my own, I found out about another aviatrix who flew in 1930, rather than 1929, and decided to model this whole exploration into Phryne’s travels after her own. If I’m to be utterly honest, Phryne was always a little ahead of her time, so she would have been able to complete the same (or at least, a very similar trip), in about the same time as this real aviatrix.

[NOTE IN RED PEN: Another note I want to include before I delve too deep into flying and calculating her flight path (real, actual math), is to do with planes once again. The little yellow plane. In the opening of the Crypt of Tears trailer, there is one small, yellow plane, followed by a larger grey plane close behind. If the planes are relevant at all (rather than just showcasing the pretty landscape), then to whom do they belong? If the yellow plane is Phryne, then has she gone back to Australia and collected her Tiger Moth since the end of 1929?]

[SECOND NOTE IN A RED BOX: Note I want to include before I forget to do so: AGES. According to what I have inferred about Jack, and what we know for sure about Phryne, I’m almost absolutely certain that Jack is four years older than our leading lady. For starters, it has always been confirmed that Phryne was born in 1899, which leaves her age during both the books AND the show to be 28/29 ish. According to the concept document released by ABC, she joined her nursing regiment for WWI directly after finishing her time at finishing school. Finishing school (in England, at least) at the time, ended at age 14. WWI started in 1914. PHRYNE WOULD HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE FRONT AT AGE FOURTEEN. Jack likely joined the police force at age 17, and we know he was a newly-wed, and that he had worked before enlisting and being offered a promotion for doing so. If he’s 18 and she’s no more than 14 when she starts (so, so young), then it seems probable that Jack was born in about 1895.]

AMY JOHNSON AND MATTERS ON FLYING:

-Miss Amy Johnson (1903-1941) was a British aviatrix who was the first to fly solo from London to Australia in 1930. She completed the 11,000-mile flight (it might have been 14,000, I can’t read my own handwriting) in 19.5 days, from Croydon, UK, to Darwin, Australia. Considered to have become a pioneer for women in what was still considered a man’s world, Johnson made her way up in the world after fighting for her pilots license, and after her Eng. to Aus. Flight, became engrained in the public’s eye. Johnson ended up marrying Jim Mollison, which only further increased her fame, and Paris fashion houses even started designing for her (sound like anyone we know?). Her “restless, glamourous” life came to a mysterious end when in 1941 she bailed out of her plane while flying over the river Thames, never to be seen again. (This story fascinates me so much, but there is SO LITTLE ON IT).

\- If Phryne had figured out the route that Amy had taken the year before it was even put into play for real (and knowing her, with her father whining and trying to persuade her to make as few stops as possible), it seems most hopeful that she would have made about 11-14 stops overall, bringing the total number of travel days up to about 22. Taking the days in total up to 22 also factors in time for the Fishers to explore each place in which they stop, and also a little buffer for if Henry’s whining gets so bad that they have to stop for even longer. So, without further ado: the likely path that Phryne would have flown (which is also listed at the end of this chapter).

\- MELBOURNE (Australia), SURABAYA (Indonesia), SINGAPORE, BANGKOK (Thailand), RANGOON (Burma), ALLAHABAD (India), BANDAR ABBAS (Iran), BAGHDAD (Iraq), CONSTANTINOPLE (Turkey), VIENNA (Austria), LONDON (England).

\- The overall distance from Melbourne to London (at least, according to my incredibly reliable source of Google Maps), is as follows- putting in the same locations, and using this weird calculator that I found online:

\- Melbourne to Surabaya: 2918 miles  
\- Surabaya to Singapore: 853 miles  
\- Singapore to Bangkok: 883 miles  
\- Bangkok to Rangoon: 364 miles  
\- Rangoon to Allahabad: 1098 miles  
\- Allahabad to Bandar Abbas: 1581 miles  
\- Bandar Abbas to Baghdad: 816 miles  
\- Baghdad to Constantinople: 999 miles  
\- Constantinople to Vienna: 792 miles  
\- Vienna to London: 767 miles  
\--Overall miles: 11,071 miles

\- With this, we can see quite how far Phryne would have had to fly, especially with how much her father would have:  
A) Slowed the whole trip down  
B) Weigh down the plane and  
C) Annoy everyone, both in the air, and on the ground.

MATH TIME:

\- To solve for time, distance, or speed, we use variants of the d= st formula. In the case of Phryne’s flight, we have the distance (11,071 miles), and after perusing through the wikipedia page that detailed the specifics of the plane she was flying (two-seater tiger moth plane), I was able to find out that the top speed of said plane is approx. 140 (air) knots, which in turn equates to 161 (ground) miles per hour. (Note: 1 knot = 1.15 mph).

\- To calculate time taken to fly the 11,071-mile course, one has to divide distance by speed, because t = d/s is the variation of the formula that is necessary. If we account for Phryne’s character, and add that into the equation (let’s be real, she would push her plane to the very limit of its capacities), and how her father and his luggage would likely weigh down the plane quite a bit, it is likely that the fastest that the plane would top out at around 125 knots, or 143 miles per hour. Long story short: 11,071/143 = 77.41 hours OR approx. four full days.

\- Now. We all know that even though the dire race to get her father home and save her parents’ marriage is the main cause of the flight, that Phryne is bound to stop over in some cities on her route for a little longer than is strictly necessary. If we account for a couple of days stopover in most cities, especially larger ones, or need to refuel during the course of larger legs of the journey such as Melbourne to Surabaya or Allahabad to Bandar Abbas. The one main way that I can see the overall trip taking longer than the 22-ish days that I had originally estimated would be if Phryne was to stop over on the upper north-west coast of Australia before crossing open sea. At this point, we have to think about the fuel capacity of the plane, but my GOD that is a lot of calculations to do by hand!  
[UPDATE AS OF JAN 14: You’re all leaving such lovely comments on this piece that I’m forcing myself to plug through the mathematics; for I feel like it will end up being much appreciated- at least: I hope!]

TALKING ABOUT PLANES AND ENGINES:

\- Right-o, dear reader. I’m going to do my favourite thing, which is preface this section with the fact that I cannot do mathematics to save my life: a lot of the last chapter was simple averages and plugging into equations, so for this part, I do hope that I can just spew out number and they make some form of sense to SOMEONE. If not, I do apologise most sincerely. Half of the time I have no idea what I’m writing, and when it comes to research, it either goes awfully well, or awfully. There is absolutely no inbetween, and frankly, I might just give up two paragraphs in, and move on to the next much more exciting topic of ‘cities during the late 20’s’.

\- For starters, let’s take a look at the plane we’re talking about: again. The plane that Phryne leaves for England is (I’m almost certain), a de Havilland Tiger Moth plane, which was first released in 1931, according to Wikipedia. Now, this throws a spanner in the works. According the IMPDB plane page, the plane shown crashed during Murder and the Maiden is the same type of plane that Phryne and her Father leave in, which raises the question: how do they have it if it hasn’t technically been released for another two years? Admittedly, this tiny discrepancy in time doesn’t bother me too much, as all the other moments in this show are so ridiculously accurate- but regardless of it being inaccurate in time, the numbers are probably going to be wrong too. [As I said for this in an earlier note: this part of the document was NOT pre-written or checked over to the extent that it was a half-edited mess in red pen and pencil notes, but was simply written at nine in the morning, when my brain is running on half a cup of salted caramel hot chocolate. Shall we begin?]

\- According to sources, the de Havilland Tiger Moth plane had a Gipsy Major, or Gipsy IIIA engine, which was a modified version of the original engine that de Havilland used, modified so that it was able to run when inverted, which resulted in the (four) cylinders now being able to be pointed down, and not block the forward view of the aircraft from the pilot’s seat- even if there was a slight disadvantage now due to the amount of oil that the engine required to simply stay functioning. According to the wikipedia page, the engine WAS upgraded later on in 1934 to a six-cylinder engine, yet, either way it was looked at, the only true gain was in horsepower, taking it up to a supposed 525 (which, is rather a few). The four cylinder that Phryne’s plane would have theoretically had, maxed out at about 145HP, as I feel like I mentioned in a previous paragraph. [UPDATE AS OF READING ANOTHER ARTICLE: There is the slight possibility that Phryne’s plane could have been powered by the older version of the aforementioned engine: the Gipsy III.]

\- Supposedly, the plane had the average fuel capacities for the time: an upright, five litre capacity engine (300 cubic inches), though other sources (the de Havilland museum page, oh?) state that the fuel capacity of this particular engine was closer to 6.12 litres. [NOTE: what?? The heck??? That’s really not a lot of fuel. At all. I probably sound really dumb so I think I’m going to leave the plane section at this? Perhaps in the future I’ll come back and update some more numbers, and actually figure out how it all adds up, but for now? I give UP!]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How um- how are we feeling? Is this still interesting? At all?


End file.
